cw-orient

# cw-orient Open every session on live truth, not on a handoff note, a directory name, or what was true last time. This repo runs many worktrees at once; the cheapest bug to avoid is editing the wrong one. Five commands, then you know where you are. This is stage 1 of the loop: **orient → [cw-slice](../cw-slice/SKILL.md) → [cw-gates](../cw-gates/SKILL.md) → [cw-dogfood](../cw-dogfood/SKILL.md) → [cw-land](../cw-land/SKILL.md) → [cw-handoff](../cw-handoff/SKILL.md)**. ## When to use - Starting a session, resuming one, or taking over from another agent. - A handoff, issue, or plan tells you the state of the repo — verify before trusting it. - You are about to edit and are not certain this checkout owns the files. ## Workflow 1. **Locate yourself.** Checkout, branch, dirt, and how far you are from the remote: ```bash git rev-parse --show-toplevel && git branch --show-current git status --short --branch git log --oneline --decorate -10 ``` A detached HEAD or a branch with no upstream is normal here — note it, don't "fix" it silently. 2. **See the other lanes.** Worktree sprawl is the standing hazard: several checkouts of this repo are usually live, each with its own dirty state. ```bash git worktree list git branch --sort=-committerdate --format='%(committerdate:short) %(refname:short)' | head -20 ``` If the work you were asked to do already has a checkout or worktree, use it. Do not start a second copy of the same lane, and do not create a worktree just because another agent is in this one — partition by file. 3. **Read the dirt before you touch it.** Modified files you did not write belong to someone else — another agent, another lane, an in-flight slice: ```bash git status --porcelain git diff --stat ``` Preserve them. Leave them unstaged, and do not `git checkout --` or stash another writer's work to get a clean tree. Only if your change genuinely conflicts with that dirt is a fresh worktree warranted ([cw-land](../cw-land/SKILL.md)). 4. **Fix which guidance applies.** The nearest scoped `AGENTS.md` wins over the root one, and it is where the per-area rules actually live: ```bash find . -name AGENTS.md -not -path './tmp/*' -not -path '*/node_modules/*' -not -path './target/*' ``` Today: root `AGENTS.md`, `crates/tui/AGENTS.md`, `crates/localization/locales/AGENTS.md`, `web/AGENTS.md`. Read the one that owns the files you are about to touch. 5. **Establish version truth from source, not memory.** ```bash grep -m1 '^version' Cargo.toml ./scripts/release/check-versions.sh ``` `check-versions.sh` is the drift gate across the workspace version, npm, `Cargo.lock`, the changelog, and the README. If it disagrees with what you were told, believe the script. 6. **Only if the task is about the community queue** — issues, PRs, harvesting, credit — pull the live queue with the `gh-*` skills in this directory rather than assuming from memory. When the task is local-only, stay offline and record the missing external receipt instead. ## Red flags / don't - Don't infer the active lane from a directory name, a stale handoff, or a `.md` file's confident prose. All three have been wrong here. - Don't treat a plan document as current state. Plans describe intent; `git` describes reality. - Don't clean, stash, reset, or `git checkout --` files you did not modify. Worktree dirt is usually another writer, not garbage. - Don't start work in a worktree whose branch is already merged to `main` — that lane is retirement material, not a base. - Don't skip step 4 because the root `AGENTS.md` "probably covers it". The scoped files carry the rules that actually get violated. - Don't fetch, browse, or hit GitHub when the task was scoped local-only. ## Output Open with a short status block. Skip fields that are empty or normal — a clean tree on `main` with no related worktrees is one line, not five: - checkout path, branch (or detached HEAD), base commit; - dirty files and whose they appear to be; - other worktrees that own related work; - workspace version and whether `check-versions.sh` agrees; - which `AGENTS.md` files govern this change.